Recommendations for Change Management at Lakeland Wonders

MEMORANDUM
TO: Cheryl Hailstorm, CEO, Lakeland Wonders
FROM: Jacob Kovacs
DATE: April 04, 2019
SUBJECT: Recommendations for change management at Lakeland Wonders
Organizational changes are never easily welcomed by employees. It is always opposed. In
this case, you made your efforts to bring some changes in the organization in order to make
Lakeland Wonders to produce cheaper and good quality toys offshore. But, it has been seen
that changes made by you are facing huge internal opposition from many managers. Some
managers have directly raised their voice against changes and some of them are making
delays in following your instructions (Clucthoma, 2012). This memo consists of analysis
conducted to understand the reasons and causes behind resistance from mangers and proposes
some recommendations for effective change management going forward.
Analysis: Forces Opposing Change
It has been 94 years to Lakeland Wonders. Since so many years of its functionality, it is
owned by a single family whose strong leadership embedded a culture of loyalty, stability,
and pride in high-quality work. But with time it is felt by many managers that stability is
causing hindrance for the company’s growth and there is need of taking some risks for the
sake of innovation. When managers are asked to change their way of dealings with union,
employees, and regional business partners in such a way that would be destructive and unfair
for the valued relationships, loyalty becomes a force of opposition (Brainmass, 2019).
Craftspeople are asked to create mass-market products or inclusion of these products under
company’s brand causing opposition of pride.
Two Principles of Ethical Change Management
Everyone has their personal beliefs and morals but when one is at the position of a manger
where you have to guide and lead people then it is required to put your personal thoughts
aside and analyse each situation objectively in order to make most possible ethical decisions

(Jtkovacs, 2019). From analysis of Lakeland Wonders case, two principles of ethical change
management have been identified from Kotter’s study which is as follows:
1. Establishing a sense of urgency: In Lakeland Wonders case it is identified that
people are not dissatisfied with current situation of company except Hailstorm. It is
known to Hailstorm that the annual growth target of company can be achieved
through Hastings, Curtiss pressure (MSU, 2019). But, she failed to create a sense of
urgency among employees and management that marketing position of company need
expansion in order to earn more revenue.
2. Develop and Communicate a Clear Change Vision: In this case, however
Hailstorm drew a vision for the company but she failed in sharing her vision with
Swensen family board members and senior management (Bashir & Afzal, 2008).
In this case, it is observed that hailstorm did not provide necessary evidence to senior vice
president, Mark Dawson, so that he believes in her change model. This created conflict
between two of them. According to Hailstorm’s vision for entering the middle toy market,
Lakeland needed to cut down its cost and thus Hailstorm choose production line to set up
offshore but did not provide evidences of this model to Mark Dawson. Also, Hailstorm
wanted to replace the current local packaging company with newer one (Bramwell, 2016).
But, she did not provide clear explanation regarding her view on this issue.
Hailstorm plan of offshore manufacture lines will let many union workers to lose their job
opportunities. Also, if Hailstorm allows Barry Quince, design director to work with the new
packaging company then it will cause Barry to lose working relationships and negotiating
power from previous work experience (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
Recommendations
1. Consider it as a Cultural Issue and appreciate its magnitude: When opposition is
in the roots of organization’s culture then the strategies for managing with incentive
pay and leading by example will not meet the requirements. Since culture of an
organization is formed from leaders’ and founders’ values, shared rituals, employee
socialization, and stories, cultural change such as changes in strategy and operations